Hendrick Ekstein is looking to stay in South Africa despite having offers from clubs abroad, according to his manager, Palesa Mkhize.

The midfielder was released by Kaizer Chiefs towards the back end of the 2018-19 campaign after reportedly not being able to agree terms on a new deal.

Ekstein, who came through the development ranks at Chiefs, felt he deserved a bigger contract with the club, and pronounced in the press that Amakhosi treat their development products differently when it comes to renewal and increase offers.

The 28-year-old is now searching for a new club and Mkhize told IOL.com there were a number of clubs interested, but he was not at liberty to reveal their names.

‘There are clubs that we’ve engaged, but we are waiting for them to get back to us. I can’t mention the clubs that want to sign the player. At the moment there’s nothing concrete.

‘As soon as we’ve started negotiating the money and stuff with the package, then we can disclose the names of the clubs. There’re two clubs that I’ve spoken to. One is local and one is not local,’ Mkhize explained.

‘There’s also interest in Azerbaijan, but obviously we want to see if the boy can get the deal locally before we can talk about offers outside the country. He has family and his child is still very young.

‘Preferably, he will love to stay here. If maybe we can’t get anything, then we will entertain the outside [deal]. But it will depend on what he gets. If he gets a good deal, then he will stay,’ she concluded.